All posts by Laura Melina Loeven

Big in Japan: doing business in the Land of the Rising Sun

By Laura Melina Loeven, Nanyang Business School

At the prospect of spending one week on a business study mission in Tokyo, I felt slightly nervous about offending senior Japanese managers. Being European, the manifold unwritten rules of Japanese business culture were still a mystery to me.

Thankfully, prior to my departure for my first MBA study trip I got to attend a crash course on Japanese business culture and the ‘dos and don´ts’ of socialising, hosted by my fellow Japanese class mates.

For one evening, I was fully drawn into the Japanese lifestyle while enjoying sushi and sake, admiring a traditional Japanese dance, learning bowing ceremonies, practising the correct exchange of business cards and eventually pondering the acquisition of Jim Beam whisky by a Japanese beverage company.

After I learned never to decline an invitation to socialise, I glanced at the tremendous amounts of sake that businessmen consume and quickly became concerned about the bowing ceremonies that I had been introduced to previously. The trip to Japan promised to be exciting.

Thinking about the city life in Tokyo, I dreamed of sky-high office towers, large and flashy advertisement screens and hordes of Hello Kittys. Crowds of business people in black suits, glued to their smartphones, appeared in front of my inner eye.

Yet, finally arriving in Tokyo, the city presented a very different image of itself. While some parts of metropolitan Tokyo felt like travelling back to the 60s, others were truly modern and impressed with trendy, simplistic and cutting-edge architecture. The streets of the hip districts of Shibuya and Shinjuku were indeed glitzy, but did not provoke the sensory overload that I anticipated.

Before heading to Tokyo, my classmates had warned me that most Japanese tend to seek harmony at all cost. Meetings run without friction and most people shy away from challenging authority by whatever means. I expected somewhat dull sessions on non-debatable company facts and figures and was prepared to sit through long, presentations from high-ranked executives.

What I found was the exact opposite. The executives that entertained the challenging questions of this bunch of ambitious MBAs did not fear any confrontation but exhibited great vigor, flexibility and a solid sense of humour in presenting their work. Instead of counting the minutes during dusty standard presentations, I was deeply impressed with the creativity, resoluteness and sincerity of the hosts’ responses to even the trickiest interrogations.

I learnt about the various strategic plans, experienced different company cultures and discussed Japan´s growth plans from every angle during our trip. Never a dull moment on this business study mission!

Five days of back-to-back meetings with 12 Japan-based companies and their highly inspirational leaders allowed me to gain valuable insights into Japanese management styles and to develop a firm understanding for growth strategies and corporate development tactics.

Currently, many Japanese companies find themselves at an inflection point. As a result of “Abenomics”, structural and fiscal reforms introduced by prime minster Abe, the nominal GDP has grown by 2.2 per cent over the past year, the highest growth in 17 years. How well an organisation responds to the challenges that arise in periods of change will determine the share of the overall national growth that the company can enjoy in the future.

The most common issue pinpointed by all presenters, an aging society as well as an overall decreasing population, will significantly impact Japan´s competitiveness in global markets in the long run. Further, many Japanese do not have a professional command of English so that their employers are often confronted with major obstacles when doing business with overseas partners.

The programmes introduced to improve the command of English are a necessary investment to make Japanese firms more attractive for foreign investment as it will eventually facilitate collaboration across borders.

I was delighted to learn that Japanese companies attach ever more importance on people development and increasingly focus on hiring international talent. Many of the companies who hosted Q&A sessions with my MBA class emphasised that they experienced radical progress by selectively incentivising employees and revising their HR policies. Offering flexible work style solutions to attract more women to the corporate world, providing training and international exchange programmes as well as shaping an overall growth mindset, has proven effective to nurture business success.

All the leaders who welcomed me and my classmates to their office agreed in saying that heavy investments in research and development programmes are crucial to compete on an international scale. While attentively monitoring innovation cycles, the firms aim to stay on top of market trends and best tailor products to customer needs.

With limited talent pools and only little entrepreneurial spirit in their own country, Japanese businesses focus on expanding through investments beyond the saturated Japanese market by asset purchases, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions.

Nikkei Inc., publisher of the largest Japanese financial newspaper, has recently announced the acquisition of the Financial Times to strengthen its global and digital growth profile. Suntory, a Japanese beverage distribution company group, has taken over the American whiskey brand Jim Beam to enhance its footprint beyond Japanese markets.

Even though Japan was not on my list of most intriguing business environments, the insights gained from the visits to companies have definitely put Japanese businesses on my radar as future employers.

 

published on: Financial Times – FT. com

http://blogs.ft.com/mba-blog/2015/11/18/big-in-japan-doing-business-in-the-land-of-the-rising-sun/

Overview of China Banking – the “Alumni Leaders Dialogue” series

December 4, 2015

Alumni Leaders Dialogue with Eric Lian, CEO of UOB (China) 

The Invitation to the 4th Alumni Leaders Dialogue with Mr Eric Lian, President and CEO of UOB China, was issued to all current graduate program participants of Nanyang Business School. All seats at the NTU campus venue were taken when Mr Lian spoke about the issues oft he banking business in China and the outlook for the fastest growing economy of the world. 

With more than 20 years of banking experience in business and risk management, Mr Eric Lian joined UOB in July 2013 and was appointed President and CEO of UOB (China) shortly thereafter. He is also member of the Bank’s Executive Committee.

During the December session of the Alumni Leaders Dialogue series, Mr Lian provided an operator´s view on the banking business in China and helped the present audience understand the status quo of the Chinese economy and outlined his view on the development plans of China´s government.

During his address, the veteran banker shared his expert opinion on the China Banking Landscape, sketched the “One Belt, One Road” Initiative and elaborated on Free Trade Zones within China.

After pointing out the three main aspects of China´s exceptional growth, he illustrated his personal conclusions on the future of China and derived implications for banks or corporations who wish to do business in China.

According to Mr LIan, the internationalization of the Renminbi as the 5th most traded currency worldwide, the tremendous wealth among the people in mainland China, and continuous liberalization of cross-border RMB flows, will be strong growth drivers for the future of China.

“We all know that China does not produce millionaires anymore. They produce billionaires”, said Eric Lian. After a long period of government subsidies over the past years, the country has come to be the world´s second largest and fastest growing economy in terms of GDP measures. Spending money in the desired growth sectors, supporting the development of core industry´s competences and intensively driving up demand, China as thee “factory of the world” has accumulated over-capacities, inefficient structures and unsustainable business practices. Now, a painful period of restructuring causes growth figures to slowdown and makes the world hold its breath. However, China government initiatives such as the “One Belt, One Road” policy, that aims to secure resources, develop the Chinese export markets, and prepares new growth paths to offset over-capacities, clearly signal that China still sets the course for growth.

Besides speaking of China Banking in the macroeconomic context, Mr Lian also gave an insightful introduction into Chinese business culture and frankly presented his view of Chinese investment management practices to the attending students. Other than European clients, Chinese middle class clients primarily focus on investing their savings in stocks but at the same time wish to offset the risk resulting from volatility in the stock market by investing in real estate as early as possible. “If you want to get married in China, you need to own a house”, he explained to the diverse group of international students. Thus, the challenges faced when dealing with clients in China are very different from the needs of clients in other parts of the world.

Responding to questions from his attentive audience, the speaker closed his talk by outlining his response to competition from online banks and e-commerce firms. The disruption caused by digital players forces traditional banks to rethink their strategy, adjust their way of working to the digital reality and restructure not only their product portfolio but also their interactions with customers around the world.

 IMG_5392

MBA Student Michael Hold at the Q&A session

IMG_5305

Mr Lian addressing NBS graduate students

Merry Christmas – Santa Claus at NBS

„Have yourself a merry little Christmas, let your heart be light. From now on, our troubles will be out of sight!“

On the last weekend of the year, the NTU MBA batch of 2016 came together for an early Christmas party. Midway through the second trimester and with the upcoming winter break approaching, everyone was excited to not only celebrate the birth of baby Jesus according to Christian tradition, but also a successful first half of the MBA.

The Social and Culture Club jointly with the Beer, Wine and Liqueur Appreciation Club had invited for an end-of-year Christmas party and put in a lot of effort to make the event as authentic as possible by setting up a Christmas tree, playing modern arrangements of traditional Christmas songs and ordering an abundance of mouth-watering food, including traditional festive dishes such as stuffed turkey and gingerbread cookies.

The long queue at the buffet speaks volumes about the exquisite taste of food on the buffet, which was washed down with hot mulled wine and chocolate mousse. „I have never had hot wine before.                  I don´t know why, because it is so delicious“, said one of the participants who celebrated their first ever Christmas party.

Having fed the crowd, Santa fulfilled its duty and distributed the presents that the many „Secret Santas“ had placed under the beautifully decorated Christmas tree. The newly elected Santa Clause, Yuji-San(ta), did an excellent job in helping everyone finding their gifts, and his voice even over drowned out the rustling of wrapping papers as the presentees unwrapped their tokens. The many voices yelling „Merry Christmas“, asking „Who is my Secret Santa?“ and even more „Thank you´s“ were perfect evidence that giving gifts, as small as they may be, truly spreads happiness.

The wave of excitement over identifying everyone´s Secret Santa only came to an end when the organiser crew called for a final activity of the evening: a gingerbread house competition.

The crowd split up in three groups to build houses of gingerbread cookies, which were judged by its stability and the creativity of its decoration. During the next thirty minutes, the teams were busy mixing sugar paste and stacking cookies in the most efficient way. What a tricky task!

The winners clearly stood out of the masses: only one of the three house stood against all shaking test, and even resisted the crash tests carried out by competitors. „This was certainly more difficult than it looked“, the struggling teams claimed while removing remains of powdered sugar from their hands.

While the looks of the edible houses differed, all participants left an equally delicate mess of sugar paste, gummi bears and jellybeans. Still, nobody minded cleaning up the sugar-covered event venue, as Christmas really is all about sharing the joy and moving troubles out of sight. Might as well cover them in sugar.

The MBA batch of 2016 at their Christmas Party on December 12, 2015
The MBA batch of 2016 at their Christmas Party on December 12, 2015

 

Gifts for all!
Gifts for all!
A great buffet
A great buffet

Diwali – Festival of Lights

On Tuesday, November 10, 2015, approximately 30 MBA students, professors, staff and international exchange students gathered on campus to celebrate Diwali, the biggest and brightest Hindi festival.

As Diwali is  the festival of lights, students lit a sea of candles, put up chains of lights and made the venue shine and sparkle.

Upon finishing the decoration ceremony, the attendees were briefly introduced to the backgrounds of the Diwali festival and learnt about the saga that once initiated the celebration of Diwali, which spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. At the beginning of the event, the Indian students of the class demonstrated the Lakshmi puja, one of the important rituals performed during the festival of Diwali. This ritual, performed to invite Goddess Lakshmi to one´s home, was carried out by praying at a beautifully laid out altar, as a silent beginning of an otherwise loud and exciting night.

As per the Hindi tradition, the event organisers had prepared for a Rangoli contest, where the event participants competed in creating the most beautiful pattern of flowers and coloured sand. “We had a lot of fun getting to know Hindu culture and I was excited to get my hands dirty and create the best looking Rangoli”, a MBA participant said. The winners of the creativity contest were announced by a jury of indian students who awarded the lucky contestants with chocolate bars and a thundering applause. Later, an entertaining round of Tambola and the opening of a buffet loaded with an abundance of sweets, snacks and drinks made the Diwali night an unforgettable experience for all.

12239665_1050544588311270_691203114255490606_n11261209_10153368017993167_3126830228461856434_n

Dell Case Success Celebration

A team of three NBS MBAs of the class of 2015/16 reached the final round of the Dell Inter-University Case Competition and was invited to deliver their closing presentation on the Dell premises in Singapore on Friday, October 9th.

When the results of the competition were announced, there was a wave of excitement amongst the entire cohort present at the venue. The NBS team named DellTa had emerged as Victorians at the Dell Case challenge! Everyone in the audience, even if not known to the team, could have definitely identified who had won the competition. The batch mates that had joined the final round to support their team burst in joy and those who could not attend the final round in person were instantaneously notified via phone so that the good news spread quickly.

Continue reading Dell Case Success Celebration

October Babies Cake

The harder we debate in the cases and the harder we need to celebrate every moment here at NBS. As we prepared for the exams, the exco team decided to treat the batch with some sweets and a small get together.

It was October, and thus it was planned to surprise the October babies with a small birthday celebration during a class break. All those who are born in October were brought together to cut the two chocolate cakes that were ordered and the class took some time to voice best wishes to their batch mates. Each one of them was gifted with a lottery ticket to wish them all the best and good luck for the future.

Luckily for the group of October babies, the cake was too delicious to be put on their faces and for a change we ate it all.

Now, everyone is keenly waiting for the November birthday celebrations. =)

End of Marketing Course Celebration

This celebration is hosted by The Wine, Beer & Liqueur Appreciation Club

The Wine, Beer & Liqueur Appreciation Club recently hosted a small gathering to toast farewell to our Trimester 1 Marketing course. The cohort had taken part in a competitive and highly challenging Markstrat marketing simulation, and the final simulation run was a great chance to gather together and celebrate the end of 8 weeks of hard work.

Continue reading End of Marketing Course Celebration